Quote:
Originally Posted by NoizeBringer
I really wish they'd gone into more detail about his college years, his military years, and his life after baseball. Jackie Robinson was such a complex and amazing human being. His entire life was movie-worthy. But this movie was really only about the 1947 season. If I had to sum it up I'd say this movie needed more Ken Burns and less Michael Bay.
-Ryan
|
Absolutely no problems with anyone disliking this or any movie.. but you've got to realize that what you want is an entirely different movie. One in which it's no longer possible to tell the story of that first year's obstacles, emotion, team dynamics, etc with the focus they did.
I think filmmaking is one of the most challenging things there is, and a filmmaker has to make a lot of tough choices.. basically infinite choices when you take into account that on each take they need to choose camera angles, lighting, set and character staging, etc. One of those difficult early choices is choosing the scope and focus of your story. The writer/director (and studio) chose to focus on that first season which is fair enough. I'd be fine sitting through a 9 hour movie about his whole life (as I'm guessing you would also
).. one that is able to give each key moment its due, but the viewing audience would not, and that movie would never be made. If they were to try to squeeze college/military/negro league/minor league/'47-'55 series/maybe some civil rights activism/capped off by a Jesse Jackson eulogy into a 2 hour movie, they'd have had to make so many compromises, zipping through years at a time, and would have lost many of those key 1946-1947 moments/emotions they chose to focus on.
I hope someone else makes that more comprehensive movie down the road.. but at this point I think it will be a long time, since I don't think many studios are lining up to make another J Robinson story anytime soon.
ADDING: I watched K Burns' 1940's episode Baseball late last night..So good! That series will never be outdone.